Sunday, September 30, 2012

We know we will never suffer a Mars attack as, thanks to
rover, we can see the planet harbours no life. But, once again the big
question, what are the chances of life in some form or other existing elsewhere?
Well, technology has advanced so much in the last few years, and that includes
astronomy, our knowledge has expanded at the rate of knots and, I would
imagine, will go ever faster until the day comes when we will know for certain
about alien existence. Our world is very small. Our world is miniscule, our
world is a drop in a vast ocean. Where does it rate in the scheme of things? A
new study suggests that every star in the night sky is host to 1.6 planets.
(Don’t ask me how you get .6 of a planet because I don’t know) but this implies
there are some – wait for it because this is staggering, take a deep breath –
there are some 10 billion earth-sized planets in our galaxy. Ten billion! How
does a hitch-hiker get around that?

Using a technique called gravitational microlensing, an international team
found a handful of exoplanets that imply the existence of billions more.
Gravitational microlensing is a method that uses the gravity of a far-flung
star to amplify the light from even
more distant stars that have planets. While the number of actual events and detected
planets was low, the team was able to estimate how many such exoplanets must
exist.
Researchers from more than 20
international institutes and universities have worked on this. “Just the recent
15 years have seen the count of known planets beyond the Solar System rising from none to about 700, but we can expect hundreds
of billions to exist in the Milky Way alone,” said co-author Dr Martin Dominik,
from the University of St Andrews.
Astronomers used a number of relatively small telescopes that make up the
Microlensing Network for the detection of small terrestrial exoplanets to look
for the rare event of one star passing directly in front of another as seen from Earth.
The team witnessed 40 of these microlensing events, and in three instances
spotted the effects of planets circling the more distant stars. While the
number of actual events and detected planets was low, the team was able to
estimate how many such exoplanets must exist.
Gravitational microlensing can find planets of all sizes and distances. It
can currently spot a planet as small as Mercury, orbiting at a similar distance
to its host star, or as far away as Saturn.
Obviously infinity is a reality and the question I have to ask is where in
the human mindset does god come into all this? And what price astrology?
.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Following after the popcorn and dental floss stories here is
another. Cecilia Gimenez: The woman who ruined a prized Jesus Christ fresco in Spain, her
do-it-yourself restoration in a church leaving the 19th Century fresco of Christ
described as “resembling a hairy monkey in a very ill-fitting tunic,” but she is
now demanding royalties after her botched restoration became a hit with
tourists.

“Everybody who came into the church could see I was painting,” the eighty
odd years old said. Her lawyers, say any economic compensation would go to
charities. (?) Thousands of people have
since visited the church near Zaragoza and Ryanair,
jumping on an obvious bandwagon, is now even offering deals to the
north-eastern Spanish city, encouraging tourists to see the fresco in the
Sanctuary of Mercy Church in Borja. Ms Gimenez said with the best intentions
she had decided to restore the work by Elias Garcia Martinez because of its
deterioration due to moisture. She claimed to have had the permission of the
parish priest to carry out the job. “How could you do something like that without
permission? He knew it!” she was quoted as saying. But during the restoration,
the delicate brush strokes of Elias Garcia Martinez were completely
obliterated. The once-dignified portrait is now an abomination. Ms Gimenez
appears to have realised she was out of her depth and contacted the city
councillor in charge of cultural affairs. Cultural officials said she had the
best intentions and hoped the piece could be properly restored.
Well, thinking of a couple of stories in the news makes me wonder if the
church, various churches, is anything more than power and money. I think of the
fundamentalist preachers in the states who coin a fortune by selling the idea
of god to the deluded in need of comfort and now Germany's Roman Catholics are
to be denied the right to Holy Communion or religious burial if they stop
paying a special church tax. A German bishops' decree which has just come into
force says anyone failing to pay the tax - an extra 8% of their income tax bill
- will no longer be considered a Catholic. The bishops have been alarmed by the
number of Catholics leaving the Church. I should think this will have more of
them leaving. Catholics make up around 30% of Germany's population but the number
of congregants leaving the church swelled to 181,000 in 2010, with the increase
blamed on revelations of sexual abuse by German priests.
If the religious tax is not forthcoming, Catholics will no longer be allowed
to receive sacraments, except before death, or work in the church and its
schools or hospitals. Without a “sign of repentance before death, a religious
burial can be refused,” the decree states. Opting out of the tax would also bar
people from acting as godparents to
Catholic children.

And while on the subject of sexual abuse the Roman
Catholic Church in the Australian state of Victoria has confirmed that more than 600
children have been sexually abused by its priests since the 1930s. The
Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, described the figures as "horrific
and shameful". Campaigners say the true number of abuse victims could be
up to 10,000. Abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests has been a major
issue in Australia
recent years. During a visit in July 2008, Pope Benedict XVI met some of the
victims and made a public apology for the abuse.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Continuing with our thoughts on how silly
this world is becoming. Before now we’ve had a good laugh on all the stupid
judgments made in courts of law both in
America and the UK as far as compensation is concerned which has led to
everyone walking on eggshells just in case but even then something is likely to
take one by surprise. I think in particular of the woman been awarded massive
compensation because she thought that as her Winnebago was automatic she could
go back and make herself a cup of coffee while the vehicle drove itself. Not
only was she awarded a hefty sum but the company had to provide her with another
vehicle and explain in its instruction manual that automatic does not mean it drives
itself. Then there was the lady who burnt her mouth in MacDonald’s because her
coffee was too hot, another hefty payout, and the lady who tripped over an
infant in a furniture store, the judge not taking into account that it was her
own infant. And now we have a $7000000 pay out, yes, folks, seven million dollars,
in the case of the poisonous popcorn.

A US man has been awarded $7.2m
(£4.4m) in damages after claiming he developed "popcorn lung" from inhaling the artificial butter in microwave
popcorn. A Colorado
jury agreed with Wayne Watson that a popcorn manufacturer should have had
warning labels that the bag's fumes were dangerous to inhale. He developed
respiratory problems in 2007, after regularly eating popcorn.

"Popcorn lung" is a form of irreversible disease that scars the
lung and makes it difficult for air to flow out.
The verdict is the latest in a series of successful cases, including those
by popcorn plant workers who became ill. The cases link diacetyl, an ingredient
in the flavouring, to health problems. Mr. Watson had previously settled with
flavourings company FONA International Inc., though we aren’t told how much he
got from them; but add it to seven
million dollars and more, that comes to one hellava lot of popcorn.
And for those of you who munch popcorn and sugary delights here is another
juicy twenty-first century story to chew over.

Eleven inmates in a suburban New York jail have sued their prison for
$500m (£300m) and access to dental floss, saying they are losing their teeth. In
a civil rights lawsuit filed on 10 September, the inmates say they are
suffering cavities and pain because they are unable to floss.

Deputy Correction Commissioner Justin Pruyne defended the ban, saying floss
can potentially be used as a weapon. Santiago Gomez, the lead plaintiff, says
other jails permit flossing.
The inmates at the Westchester county jail in Valhalla
say without floss they develop cavities and bleeding gums, despite brushing
their teeth three times a day. They also say they need constant dental work for
temporary fillings because they are denied crowns and root canals.
Mr. Pruyne said staff were exploring if there were products "which
would be appropriate in a custodial situation... maybe some sort of floss that
breaks easily" but that "staff and inmate safety come first".
Are hundreds of thousands of inmates in prisons all over the world losing
their teeth because they don’t have dental floss?
Mr. Ripley, you really can’t make it up.

Monday, September 24, 2012

The world gets sillier and sillier, more and more stupid.
We drown in a veritable tsunami of trivia. “Actor Simon Russell Beale had to
leave the stage during Wednesday's performance of Timon of Athens at London's National Theatre
after falling and dislocating his finger. The star slipped during an intense
scene in the second half of the play.” Whoa! Golly gosh! Oh, my word! This is
headline news? This is going to set the world on fire? The soldiers in Afghanistan are
going to be more worried about Mister Beale’s finger than they are about the Taliban?
The Jihadists and terrorists are going to give up their murderous ways? The Japanese
and Chinese are going to stop squabbling for a while over those little Pacific
islands? The Israelis and Palestinians are going to come to some kind of
accord. Fighting in Syria
will come to a stop? The mega-rich will suddenly develop a social conscience and
start being philanthropic? Politicians will become honest? Mexican drug gangs
will stop knocking each other off at the rate of knots? In fact the supply of
drugs will dry up altogether. Loggers will stop destroying the world’s
remaining rain forests? Poachers will stop the slaughter of wild life,
especially endangered species? The
problem of the world’s overpopulation will be solved and the Pope will come to
his senses and agree contraception is a good thing? Fundamentalists and
Creationists and flat earthers will suddenly see the light of day. Mitt will
include a message of sympathy in a campaign speech; try to say it in Spanish and
taste toes yet again. None of these things are as important as an actor
breaking his finger on stage and his understudy having to go on after only five
weeks rehearsal Po po po, poor fellow as a
Greek would say. Ninety-nine percent of the world’s population hasn’t a clue as
to who Mr. Beale is anyway.

Speaking to the BBC, the understudy described the numbing moment he realised
he had to take over from the play's
star. "The audience gave me a tremendous welcome and I just got straight
into it," he said.
Some of those who watched the play praised the cast's performance on
Twitter.
"Just saw Timon @NationalTheatre - pertinent and excellent - Simon
Russell Beale and Paul Dodds both cracking (and all the rest too)," wrote Bleeding
Heart Films.
"Saw Simon Russell Beale break his finger on stage," added actress Kate Bancroft.
"Well done to Paul Dodds for taking over in Act 4!"
God save us! It’s no wonder it’s called Twitter.
Beale resumed his role as Timon on Thursday night. "He had his fingers
splinted at the hospital. It was his right hand so he has had to slightly amend
his performance,"
Well well well, this is where I bite my cheek to stop from
laughing. Who would ever have thought of something so dramatic actually
happening in a theatre?

Saturday, September 22, 2012

I’m back on the religious bit once more so,
if you’re fed up with it, not again I
hear you say, now is the time to cop out, switch off, retire, retreat, go make
a cup of tea because there is something to be said, not just about one of them,
but all three major religions.

Let’s start with Islam. The whole of the
Middle East and further afield is evidently a mass of rioting faithful because
evidently they believe a short rather bad amateur film seen on the internet and
purportedly about the life of the prophet is insulting to Islam. The film was
evidently made by some Coptic Christians based in America,
which is a wonderful excuse for the hate America mobs (as if they needed an excuse)
to create merry mayhem and indeed, at least one American diplomat has died. The
film was evidently sponsored by that well-known fundamentalist Christian idiot
the Rev. Jones who once nearly caused world war three by threatening to burn
copies of the Koran. The Egyptian government has issued warrants for the arrest
of all those involved and obviously is hoping America will extradite them in
which case they will be tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death. So what is
new? We hear that the Coptic Christians in Egypt are apt to have a very bad
time of it but to make this film seems to me a lesson in abject folly.

So, as the Rev. Jones is behind it, what
other nasty shenanigans have bigoted American fundamentalists been up to?

Well, in Cameroon a man is (or has been) sentenced
to three years in prison for sending a note to another man saying I love you. Uganda extends
the penalty for homosexuality to life. They have dropped the death penalty
clause, realising I suppose that if carried out this would put them beyond the
pale. In fact, South Africa
apart, it would seem that to be gay in any other African country is to risk everything
in life worth living for, including love. Now we know that Africans are
conservative and traditionalists but what is behind all this? Well, surprise,
surprise, but no surprise really, it seems those fundamentalist so-called Christians
are at it again, swarming into Africa and
preaching hatred as is their wont. As they have been fighting a losing battle
with the acceptance of gays in more civilised parts of the world (Russia
excluded) they obviously feel Africa is a new frontier where they stand a
better chance of having their God’s message received and acted on.

And finally to Judaism.

With hoodies covering their faces and cans of spray paint
in hand, they may look like average teenage vandals out for a night of mayhem.
But on the streets of Arab East Jerusalem, some young Jewish people are up to
more than just graffiti. They are part of what has become known as
"price-tag gangs" and they are risking their safety to send a very
political message. Price-tagging is the term they use for a range of acts, from vandalism to arson attacks and religious
desecration. They carry out these crimes as an act of revenge. Primarily, they
are warning their own government that there is a price to pay for any attempt
to give what they believe is Jewish land to the Palestinians as part of the
fragile peace process. The price-tag gangs come from
the hilltops of the West Bank, Arab territory that has been occupied by Israel since
the war of 1967.

Israeli homes built on occupied land are illegal according to international
law but Israel regards the
West Bank as territory whose final status is yet to be determined and has built
120 settlements here - around 300,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank,
excluding East Jerusalem.
But there are also 100 small outposts scattered on strategic hilltops some
of which are illegal under Israeli law because they are built on private
Palestinian land. For the hilltop youth - price tagging is their calling card
and they have sworn to sacrifice all to prevent this land being given to the
Palestinians. Moriah Goldberg is one of
them. The 20-year-old was captured on CCTV in February in a Palestinian
village. She slashed open sacks of building materials, cars were sprayed with
graffiti saying "revenge" and insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Moriah,
who is under house arrest in the ultra nationalist Israeli settlement of
Tapuach, in the West Bank, did not deny her
actions.
"A 'price tag' means that when the government of Israel decides to evict a settlement, an
outpost, even the smallest wooden shack in the land of Israel
- it has a price. Maybe it will make them think twice before they do it
again." The Israeli government's move to label some of the price-taggers'
behaviour as acts of terrorism does not faze her.
But where, you ask, does religion actually come into this? Well, heed well
the words of Miss Moriah Goldberg because they are what every religious fanatic
of whatever persuasion spouts. "Faithless Jews who don't fear God can call
me a terrorist if they want. I don't care what they say about me. I only care
what God thinks. I act for him and him alone."
Wow! A latter day Mosesette! How did God tell her what he wants? Did he text
her? Did he send her an e-mail? Did she hear his voice come down from the clouds? Did he whisper in her ear? Did she
have a vision? How did God communicate his wishes to her and above all why did
he choose Miss Goldberg?
Amid the price-tagging and tension over Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, peace talks with the Palestinians are frozen.
Regardless of what happens to the peace process the government knows it has to
tackle the enemy within before Jewish militancy in the name of God yet spirals
out of control. You can do and say anything if you know he is on your side.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

This is not meant to be maudlin or morbid
or an indulgence in sentimentality. Think of it rather as a meditation. After
my Blog about Merrill’s deterioration we received a number of sympathetic
messages amongst which was one from
our friend Ray Bluett in Tasmania.
When his own dog died he tells us, evidently his vet quoted an old comforting saying
by an anonymous writer the last line of which is “we walked together for a
little while,” and, reading it, I couldn’t help but feel that sentiment summons
up so succinctly the beginning and ending, the all of our existence. I read
somewhere once that when you reach the ripe old age of seventy or more (probably
more as we seem to be living longer and longer – some of us that is) if you
have six friends remaining from forty
years ago consider yourself lucky. Well I must be lucky as I can think of at
least ten still with us, still walking together, but how many many are no
longer with us. They walked their while with us and are gone: family, relations,
friends, old lovers, pets no longer with us, some unfortunately dying very young.
All we have are the memories of the time
we walked together. Of course it is not only those who have died; some friends
just disappear into the blue and one can’t help wondering why. Maybe it’s just
the natural way of things, everything eventually coming to its inevitable end.
Even a relationship that lasts for say fifty or sixty years or more is but a
nanosecond in the great scheme of things.

My mother, apart from
the occasional aria like “Softly Awakes My heart” from
“Samson and Delilah” loved to sing those sentimental old Victorian ballads that
I remember to this day. Such a one is “I’ll walk beside you.”

I'll walk beside you through the world
today
While dreams and songs and flowers bless your way
I'll look into your eyes and hold your hand
I'll walk beside you through the golden land.

I'll walk beside you through the world tonight
Beneath the starry skies ablaze with light
Within your soul love's tender words I'll hide
I'll walk beside you through the eventide.

I'll walk beside you through the passing years
through days of cloud and sunshine, joys and tears
And when the great call comes, the sunset gleams
I'll walk beside you to the land of dreams.

Another was…

Once in the dear dead days beyond recall

When on the world the mists began to fall,

Out of the dreams that rose in happy throng

Lo to our hearts love sung an old sweet
song

And in the dusk where fell the firelight
gleam,

Softly it wove itself into our dream.

Just a song at when the lights are low,

And the flick’ ring shadows,

Softly come and go,

Though the heart be weary,

Sad the day and long

Still to us at twilight comes love’s old
song,

Comes love’s old sweet song.

Our dad’s party piece whenever he was asked
to sing was “Somewhere a voice is calling.”

They might have been Victorian but they
have still been sung by modern artistes including Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra
and I guess when my time comes people will hear my voice calling and remember I
walked beside them for a little while.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

It never ceases to amaze as to just how
gullible humans can be and I am not referring here to all the religious claptrap
that’s been bandied about for generations but on a more simple level, the April
Fool kind of caper. Remember how many years ago Orson Welles radio programme
“War of the Worlds” from the
H.G.Wells story created such widespread panic in the United States. Well Aliens are
forever on people’s minds and in the news and maybe one day some will actually
come to light. There is a hilarious quirky Tim Burton film made in 1996 called
“Mars Attack” starring Jack Nicholson, Glen Close, Pierce Brosnan among others
in which the seemingly indestructible Martians are finally defeated by very
loud terrible pop noise. I wonder if anyone was taken in by that one. Hopefully
not it I great fun ands so bizarre.

I remember an April fool’s joke many years
ago put out by the BBC showing spaghetti growing on trees and for one fleeting
second I think I wondered about it so who knows how many people were taken in
by it?

But what started this off was a news item from America
(where else?) concerning mermaids.

There is no evidence that mermaids exist, a
US
government scientific agency has said.

Fantastic news. The National Ocean Service a
division of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) made the
unusual declaration in response to public inquiries following a TV show on the
mythical creatures. It is thought some viewers may have mistaken the programme
for a documentary. “No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found,” the
service wrote in an online post. Aquatic humanoids huh?

Images and tales of mermaids - half-human, half-fish - appear in mythology
and art from across the world and
through history, from Homer's
Odyssey to the oral lore of the Australian aboriginals. The article was written
from publicly available sources
because “we don't have a mermaid science programme”, National Ocean Service
spokeswoman Carol Kavanagh said, adding that at least two people had written to
the agency asking about the creatures.
The inquiries followed the broadcast of “Mermaids, The Body Found,” on the
Discovery Channel's Animal Planet network. The Discovery Channel has
acknowledged the programme was a work of fiction but its wink-and-nod format
apparently led some viewers to believe it was a science education show.
But in fact believe it or not, mermaids have existed. At the University of Lincoln, staff and students have been
examining the mummy of what is known as the Buxton mermaid. Her hair is human
and the tail is definitely fish.

Anita Hollinshead, a conservation and restoration masters
student, came across the mermaid while working at the Buxton
Museum and Art Gallery.

“We think that it came from
the mid-19th Century,” she said. “She may have come from
Japan or the Far East. A lot of these kinds of mermaid came from that area and were made by fishermen and they
sold them to supplement their income as sort of fake mermaids. Sometimes people
bought them thinking they were the real thing. They were very popular side-show
attractions, particularly in London
in the mid-19th Century.” X-ray examinations have shown the mermaid's upper
body is built upon a wooden and wire structure. There is evidently also a
merman but how do you tell the difference? Is he really equipped with the
necessary? A question I can’t answer.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

It’s quite amazing what communications come
to one via the internet. What for example do you make of this?

Headed ‘To Mr. Glyn Jones a request for two
hand written autographs.’

Dear Mr. Jones,
Will You be kind enough to make a precious gift of 2 hand-written ( not
printed ) autographs ( one for ALEXANDER and one another for my brother
VLADIMIR )? We shall be glad to receive Your original autographs sometime.
Thank You very much in advance ! We shall feel highly honoured.
We wish You all the good lucks and all the best always and everywhere ! Let
the successes and the joy of life accompany You in all Your deeds !
Sincerely,
ALEXANDER and VLADIMIR STOLYAROV,
ROSA LUXEMBURG ST.
50-11,
71112 BERDYANSK,
UKRAINE.

Well, apart from
the not so good English, the address is genuine and the request is genuine but
the whole thing, according to the research Douglas
has done, is evidently some sort of scam. Note the signatures need to be hand
written, not printed. Reminds me of Bond’s shaken not stirred. We can’t really
fathom out how it is supposed to work. Presumably money is involved somewhere
down the line but what possible use can my signature be in the Ukraine? Evidently
anyone who has a website is fair game, even someone as unimportant as me. I,
being flattered by the request, might have responded but naturally the
communication was immediately deleted. I still do get the occasional fan letter
from Doctor Who fans wanting an
autograph but these are usually accompanied by a photograph they’ve taken off
the telly and sometimes even include postage
stamps which aren’t much use from Greece but a
nice thought.

Getting old, coming to the end, is no joke.
Our lovely Merrill, she who wrote the Christmas letters and who over twelve years
has given us so much pleasure, is now completely incapacitated. Her legs are
simply useless and she cannot stand up on her own let alone walk. She has to be
carried everywhere, and held up even to eat her dinner or shit and piss. I say
it like that, shit and piss, because I hate poncey words like “evacuate her bowels”
Her back legs went first but now it is all four and it has happened so fast. It
breaks my heart to see her lying wherever she is put down, she must be so
frustrated because she is as alert as ever. If she were a human she would be bed
ridden but a bed ridden patient could at least have books or the telly or
something to keep them amused. We are making as much fuss of her as we can but,
looking at her watching us, one cannot help but wonder what is going on in that
little canine brain. Does she know she is reaching the end? Can she sense it somehow?
Or is she just frustrated at being so completely incapacitated?

A friend suggest steroids might help but
when she was taken to the vet (Merrill that is not the friend) he dismissed
that idea, not because it wasn’t a good suggestion but because of side effects
on the liver and kidneys. In fact he took tests and the liver showed a marked
tendency towards problems so he suggested half a Depon a day which is what she has
though she hates taking it even in food.

Now we have to ask ourselves, is she in
pain? We don’t believe so. Does she have any quality of life? Well at the
moment we think maybe she still has although her condition must be similar to
locked-in syndrome and I fear soon, if nature doesn’t get there first, we will
have to make that decision we would rather put off forever.

Friday, September 14, 2012

A fascinating story on the news: a woman in
India
who has for twenty-four years fought to prove she is alive. Asharfi Devi was
declared dead in 1988. She was married
at the age of 12, became a mother at 19, was deserted by her husband at 23 and was
declared dead at the age of 40.

Now 64, her efforts to prove she is still alive finally paid off when a village council in May of this year
ruled that she was indeed alive.
Asharfi Devi's parents married her to a local farmer, Ram Janam Singh, of
Barun village in Rohtas district of the northern state of Bihar
in 1960. In rural India,
weddings are almost never registered and Asharfi Devi doesn't have any
documents to prove her marriage, but she vaguely recalls that she was around 12
when she married. What she remembers well though is her delight at being
dressed in the bright red bridal sari and the loud Hindi film songs blaring from a loudspeaker perched atop a tree trunk outside
her parents' thatched house.
Her happiness, however, was short-lived. Soon after her wedding, she
discovered that she was her husband's second wife - Ram Janam Singh was a
widower whose first wife had died sometime before his second marriage. At 19,
Asharfi Devi became the mother of a baby girl. But, by now, she says, her
husband had started abusing her physically and mentally.” Four years after my
daughter was born, my husband deserted us so we went to live with my
parents," she says. As time passed, Asharfi Devi married off her daughter
Bimla Devi to a vegetable vendor, Anil Kumar Singh, while living at her
parent's house. Her father and brother paid for the wedding.

Asharfi Devi says her husband declared her
dead to prevent any claim on his property Her world fell apart when she found
out that he had procured a fake certificate of her death from
the Sasaram district municipal council and also taken another wife - his third.
The death certificate was issued on 30 December 1988.

"At the age of 40 I was declared dead, officially," says a
distraught Asharfi Devi. She then began her long fight to prove that she was
alive. She approached the police, the politicians and even the courts. "I
knocked on every door, from police
to the court, but no-one could prove officially that I was alive, despite being
convinced that I was alive. I was crestfallen," she says. To continue her
battle to prove that she was alive, she moved in with her daughter and
son-in-law into a hut in the village, barely half a kilometre from her husband's home. She says she was threatened
by her husband and his new wife.

She now lives with her daughter and
son-in-law

"He was transferring all his property in the name of his third wife
after proving me officially dead," Asharfi Devi says. "He even had me
sent to jail after implicating me in a false theft case in 1993-94," she
says.

In desperation, she filed a petition before the village council last year,
claiming that she was alive.
For eight months, the council examined all the evidence and in May, it
invited Asharfi Devi, her husband and family members, villagers, local police,
administration officials and journalists for the judgement day.
"After examining all the facts and evidences, the village council
delivered justice to Asharfi Devi by proclaiming that she was alive," The
order has brought her some relief: "Now I have papers to prove my
existence. I am not dead."
But Asharfi Devi's husband, Ram Janam Singh, continues to deny her
existence.
"Asharfi Devi died in 1988," he says. "I don't know why this
woman is claiming to be my wife. Ask her, what can I say?"

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

In a previous Blog I wrote about the worry
eighty percent of British mothers have about the future of their offspring and, coincidentally, later in the book reviews in The Sunday Times culture section I read
about – “A society in trauma.” That was the headline.

And it isn’t about Greece or the UK
or any other European country it’s about – China! It’s all very well wealthy
Chinese buying up property overseas and indulging in toys like executive jets,
how is it really with the country? Well, according to “The End Of The Chinese
Dream – Why Chinese fear the future” by Gerard Lemos obviously all is not well
and I hope the reviewer Frank Dikotter won’t mind my quoting him in part.

“Invited to lecture at a university in Chongqing between 2006 and 2010 Gerard Lemos obtained permission
to erect “wish trees” in several neighbourhoods in Chongqing
and Beijing. He
then sampled the cards people attached to the branches, gaining access to the
innermost concerns of hundreds of displaced farmers and factory workers. Rather
than finding the industrious and increasingly prosperous workforce that is so often
shown on state television. Lemos discovered a traumatised society in which most
people are left to fend for themselves. Millions of poor farmers, forced to leave
the countryside, face the prospect of unemployment, the absence of basic
healthcare and lack of any state pension. Many of the elderly are financially dependent
on their children. But China
(like everywhere else I suppose) is an aging society and the one-child policy
places a huge burden on the single children who have to provide for their
relatives. Education is compulsory but not free. It can absorb one third of a family’s
income as local officials discover ever more ways of gouging money from parents, ranging from
fees to cover building repairs to stipends for teachers in public schools.

In the cities a university education is the
highest ambition, but even here despair is the norm. Up to a third of graduates
(about 2 million young people each year) cannot find a job. So desperate are
they for work that when a local government in Shandong advertised for people willing to shovel
excrement, five graduates were chosen out of 400 applicants.

Of 191 nations listed by the World Health
organisation in an equality report in 2000 China was 188. Regular health
scandals too, from contaminated milk
to eggs with poisoned yolks have undermined people’s confidence in the food they
eat.

As much of the world seems starry-eyed when
it comes to the apparently inevitable “rise of China” Lemos shows that the
country’s ordinary people are deeply pessimistic.”

We come up against that selfsame problem I
keep on about, the ever increasing population that is going to increase ever
faster. It’s like a snowball rolling down the mountain; it gets larger and larger
and is impossible to stop. What is the answer? Who knows?

Monday, September 10, 2012

Just eaten the first prickly pear of the
season. Delicious. I’ve more than likely written about prickly pears before but
nevertheless here I go again. Apart from
buying Chris a bottle of prickly pear liqueur in Italy some years back I never
thought of the fruit as anything other than edible but in fact I read, like
most fruits, there are all sorts of things you can get up to both with the
fruit and its juice so guess, as there are so many this year, the plant has
grown simply enormous, and most of them will end up on the ground, maybe we
should try a few recipes.

As it is a cactus what does one call it
apart from a plant? It’s not a tree,
it’s not a bush and it can hardly be called a shrub. There are evidently a
number of species, about 200 in all, and in one American state they are
protected, goodness only knows why when you can’t stop the damn things from growing and multiplying. I did get rid of two
some years ago and this one really should be cut back heavily but that creates
yet another problem – how to get rid of the cuttings they are so large and you
can’t burn them they‘re so wet. If you leave one lying on the ground it will
sneakily push out some roots and a new plant will grow. Tenacious buggers is what
they are and, if it weren’t for the fact that I love prickly pears, I would be tempted
to get an Albanian in to get shot of it completely. In Australia they call it the most invasive
weed ever (never thought of calling it a weed and in NSW the Prickly-pear Destruction Commission was formed in 1924,
continuing right through until it was disbanded 31 December 1987 - some 63
years later. In Queensland
they tried getting rid of them with the cactoblastis caterpillar with some success.

There has been medical interest in the
Prickly Pear plant. Some studies have shown that the pectin contained in the
Prickly Pear pulp lowers levels of "bad" cholesterol while leaving
"good" cholesterol levels unchanged. Another study found that the
fibrous pectin in the fruit may lower diabetics' need for insulin. Both fruits
and pads (so that is what the leaves are called, pads of paddles: logical) of
the prickly pear cactus are rich in slowly absorbed soluble fibres that help
keep blood sugar stable.

Of coursed the prickly pear has been food in South America for a great many
years and in Mexican folk medicine its pulp and juice have been used to treat
numerous maladies, such as wounds and inflammations of the digestive and
urinary tracts. It is also the basis of alcoholic drinks. The cochineal scale
insect that feeds on it is used for cochineal dye and the gel-like sap might be
useful as a hair conditioner. Somespecies also produce the mind-altering drug mescaline and I reckon
that’s enough about prickly pears for this time.
The pomegranates are almost ripe and fresh lychees are in the greengrocers.
Of course they’re expensive, 7 euro a kilo as opposed say to oranges 10kilos
for 5euro. I remember even in South
Africa as a boy how expensive lychees were
and were bought sparingly. Pity. I love them. My mother would drive us down to
the South Beach
in Durban where
we would sit in the car and eat lychees. And still on the subject of fruit,
friends have a mango tree in their garden. It is still quite small, only about five
foot tall but it is fruiting. The fruit is small, half the size of what one
knows as a mango, but we have tasted some and they are delicious. If I had known
one could grow a mango here I most certainly would have done so but I read it
takes eight years for one to fruit so doubt I’ll be around to enjoy it. However
Douglas has dried out some pips and intends
planting them. Bananas and avocados grow on Crete.
Maybe we could try lychees at the same time.
.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

According to an article in the paper (you
can’t believe everything you read in the papers but I think this one is
probably true) eighty percent of British mothers are fearful for their
children’s future. It is not really surprising. They are worried their kids
might never find jobs, never be able to afford a house of their own but have to
live in rented accommodation for the rest of their lives. With so many
countries economies gone haywire and prices spiralling out of existence they
have every reason to be afraid. The unemployment rate in the EU is evidently
the highest it has ever been. The unemployment rate has been fairly high since
the year dot but the situation can only worsen. Why? Once upon a time not so
very long ago there was an industrial revolution which produced a phenomenon
called the Luddite. The Luddites went around smashing up machines because they
thought, in fact they knew, their livelihoods were in danger and such of course
was the case. A machine, industrial or agricultural, could suddenly do the work
of six or more which meant six or more were no longer employed. In Yorkshire for example hand weavers immediately became redundant
as the dark satanic mills took over their lives.

Now, in living memory, there has been
another revolution, an electronic one and the amazing computer growing in power
every day has taken the place of machinery in denying the workforce work. If
the computer can do the job of six or more, of twelve, of eighteen, of
twenty-four, or more, all these people are made redundant. Well, the computers,
unlike machinery are here to stay. They can’t be smashed. But with some
industries in decline and some gone forever what exacerbates the problem even
more is the ever growing population. As more and more young people reach working
age so more and more are simply going to be unable to find work. And being well
educated without being qualified in a specific profession, medicine, dentistry,
engineering etcetera, isn’t going to help. It seems these days everybody wants
to go to university, everybody wants to attain a degree but it seems to me that
academe is letting them down by offering ridiculous course that in the great
wide world amount to nothing. It also seems that many of these graduates,
gifted though they may be, simply cannot find work and it can only get worse.
So the mothers of Great
Britain and everywhere else for that matter
have every reason to worry.

Then, as fewer and fewer people work in an
ever increasing population and more and more go on the dole, never to become tax
payers, what happens then? Can the country or the remaining tax payers sustain
the expense of keeping more and more people idle?

Forget jihad, forget terrorism, the
frustrated unemployed, unemployable young are without doubt the world’s biggest
problem and it can only get worse.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

I never knew what was meant by ‘once in a
blue moon.’ Well, yes, I know what it means but why in a “blue moon?” What is a
blue moon? Well, now having just had one in August I have found out. Evidently
a blue moon is the second full moon to appear in a month and evidently happens
on an average only every two and a half years and it is called a blue moon. You
might of course have known this; I didn’t. When I was a kid there was a popular
song written by Rodgers and Hart – ‘Blue moon, you saw me standing alone,
without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.’ I remember it still. It
became a classic and I am sure there are artistes still singing it today.
Strange, when so many are forgotten, how certain songs from
one’s long distant past linger on in the memory. They must be associated with
some place, experience, or emotion of the time perhaps. ‘This is a lovely way,
to spend an evening, can’t think of anything else, I rather do.’ Now why should
that be so fresh in my memory? I have even used it in my South African novel
‘Angel.’ Others include’ ‘Red Sails In The Sunset,’ and ‘Lovely To Look At,’
and ‘Long ago and far way, I dreamt a dream one day and now that dream is here
beside me.’ Obviously I was heavily into romantic ballads.

But back to the blue moon: the internet is
awash with information about blue moon. Evidently more than our twelve months
(month comes from moon evidently)
there are eleven extra days and these mount up until every two or three years
there is an extra full moon.
The term "blue moon" comes from
folklore. Different traditions and conventions place the extra "blue"
full moon at different times in the year. In the Hindu calendar, this extra
month is called 'Adhik masa (extra month. In calculating the dates for Lent and
Easter, the Clergy identify the Lent Moon. It is thought that historically when
the moon's timing was too early, they named an earlier moon as a "betrayer
moon" (belewe moon), thus the Lent moon came at its expected time.[2]

The earliest recorded English
usage of the term "blue moon" was in a 1524 pamphlet violently
attacking the English clergy,[4]
entitled "Rede Me and Be Not Wrothe (Read me and be not angry) if they say
the moon is belewe [blue] We must
believe that it is true." Evidently the meaning of belewe in Middle
English could mean both “blue” and "betray" and the clergy referred
to the phenomenon as a “betrayer’s moon.”[2]
The most literal meaning of blue moon is when the moon (not necessarily
a full moon) appears to a casual observer to be unusually bluish, which is a
rare event. The effect can be caused by smoke or dust particles in the
atmosphere, as has happened after forest fires and after the eruption of Krakatoa
in 1883, which caused the moon to appear blue for nearly two years. Other less
potent volcanos have also turned the moon blue.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Maine Farmers' Almanac
listed blue moon dates for farmers. These correspond to the third full moon in
a quarter of the year when there were four full moons (normally a quarter year
has three full moons.) Full moon names are given to each moon in a season: For
example, the first moon of summer is called the early summer moon, the second
is called the midsummer moon, and the last is called the late summer moon. Logical
I suppose. When a season has four moons the third is called the blue moon so
that the last can continue to be called the late moon.
The next time New Year’s Eve falls on a Blue Moon (as occurred on 2009
December 31) will be 2028. At that time there will be a total lunar eclipse but
I for one won’t be around to see it.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

There are any number of countries I am very
happy not to be living in and Vietnam
is the latest to be added to the list. All governments make mistakes.
Criticizing leaders for these shortcomings or mistakes shouldn't land someone a
20-year prison sentence. -- Like a former Vietnamese police officer did by a Blog
-- Ta Phong Tan criticized her government's policies in a peaceful and
respectful manner. In a series of Blogs she opposed government overspending,
advocated for rural citizens, and warned about the danger of too close a
relationship with China.
In short, she expressed her views as a concerned citizen. For that she faces up
to 20 years in jail. The ability to express your thoughts is a fundamental right
of all people, not an offense worthy of a lengthy prison sentence, but then
living in a communist country it doesn’t do to be a dissident even in a small
way.

Not necessarily a communist country only
but an ex-communist state like Russia
which under Putin seems to be reverting to its bad old ways. I’m quite sure my
Blogs would have got me into deepest doodoo in any of these places and others besides.

So the expats hoping to sell their houses
and abandon what they believe to be a sinking ship; what will they find when
they return to the UK?
Apart from the floodtide of
foreigners, many living off Britain’s
generous benefits especially those with large families – “You’ve got eleven
kids? Oh, dear! I’m not surprised you came to the UK. Now where can we put you? I
know, there’s a nice four story house in Mayfair
worth a couple of million quid, you can have that all found.” Nigerian woman flies into Britain and has
a caesarean at a cost of £10000 to the NHS and flies out again more than likely
without even a thank you. But you, Mr. and Mrs. Expat, I don’t somehow think
you will find social security being quite so generous. You are after all
British, you carry a British passport, you were born and bred there and paid your
taxes and national insurance all your life but unfortunately you are not a
member of an ethnic minority in this colourful multi society so there’s not
much we can do for you except let you continue to have your meagre pension
which, with inflation, loses its value year after year.

And, that apart, what else will you find
taking place since you went away. Well here are some nice juicy little stories
in the news about the state of the country that you may or may not enjoy as you
prepare your departure. If you are a smoker there will be no more cheap
cigarettes. A pack will cost you £7.50 so you best give it up, and no more
cheap booze either. No more dining out and having a full delicious meal with
drinks at around 12euro a head. Don’t expect to pay peanuts for your water
supply as you have done here and here you have got used to your domestic rates
being part of your electricity bill so you don’t really notice them that much.
You will get a shock at what you might have to pay in good old Blighty. Don’t
expect to get away with free television. Here there is a small amount added to
the electricity bill as well for the government channels but nothing like the
amount the Beeb will require from
you.

Rubbish collection –A problem on Crete
because it is a smallish island, particularly in the season when the population
is augmented by thousands of holiday makers but here we have two collections a
week (used to be three) but now it’s two and they will take away any and everything
expect extra large items like old fridge’s etcetera for which you can make a
special arrangement. But what is rubbish collection like in England now –
well, that’s a whole different story, innit? To start with collection is
fortnightly, you have different bins and god help you if you use the wrong one,
you’re liable to quite a hefty fine and dustmen seem to be a law unto themselves.
In Stockport recently they refused to empty
black bins insisting they are not allowed to if the lids are open by as much as
a quarter of an inch. A spokesman for the local council said that waste had to ‘fit
comfortably within the wheeled container’ to be collected. So there you are –
no collection for another fortnight which means the waste is sitting there and
growing for a whole month, presumably now being held in plastic bags. Is this
what the residents pay exorbitant rates for? Evidently it is because, if the
lid isn’t on properly, rubbish can spill out and injure the poor workman which
brings us neatly to elf and safety. A golf course has banned golf buggies and
cafes refuse to heat baby food, the little darlings could burn their mouths I
suppose. A woman was banned from
wearing flip flops in the office (if she had two left feet she would be banned from wearing flop flops tee-hee!) because they did
not have enclosed toes and a supported back. A school tree house had to be
located outside school grounds because of health and safety fears. What
difference its location made is beyond me but there you are. If the child is
going to fall out of the tree it will fall out wherever the bloody tree is situated.
Maybe outside the grounds the school can disclaim any responsibility even if it
is still a school tree house. Another council stopped a teacher taking pupils
to an allotment. Allotments, like erupting volcanoes, are very dangerous
places. The list is practically endless and this, my dears, is one of the
aspects of modern Britain
you will be going back to. And let us not mention the millions councils are
taking in parking fines and they want more. The best of British luck as they
say.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

At a splendid birthday bash the other
evening (26 guests) at a delightful restaurant famous for its jube-jube tree, I
never knew jube-jubes actually existed or grew on trees, the talk naturally got
around to the crisis. Judging by the food that was being served you certainly
wouldn’t know a crisis existed and two English girls dining on their own were invited
to join us. They declined with thanks as they had already ordered and started their
meal but one of our lot got talking to them and it turned out they were on
holiday for a couple more days and couldn’t wait for their next visit. They
went on about how beautiful the island is and more importantly how warm,
hospitable friendly and generous are the Cretans. Sure there are bad apples,
there always are. It would be very strange if there weren’t but, on the whole,
visitors don’t tend to be ripped off despite reading at least one letter in Athens News every week someone’s tale of woe of it happening
to them, and the British press has a lot to answer for in their lies and ignorant
denigration of Greece that has devastated the tourist industry.

It would seem there is hardly a country
that isn’t undergoing some degree if financial crisis: Ireland, Spain, Italy,
Portugal, US of A and the UK isn’t exactly far behind but then it appears to me
that when it comes to spending (or overspending) no one is ready and able to
say, okay, this is the line, don’t cross it and so-called savings are
inevitably made in the wrong direction. For example maybe cutting back on the
armed forces is logical if Britain
isn’t going to go to war at the drop of a hat but cutting back on the police is
plainly ridiculous and dangerous. Not that they seem to be up to much cop these
days (unintended pun) with all the paperwork they have to do and all the elf
and safety precautions they have to take and the possibility of criminals
screaming of their yuman rights and trying to sue left right and centre. So how
is it in Britain
these days? I ask the question because one of the rumours circulating at the
dinner party was that 80% of panicking ex-pats have put their houses on the market
and are ready to return to the country they blithely abandoned when the going
here was so good. It is very foolish if true. One, it isn’t a seller’s market even
before being flooded with unwanted houses, and even if they manage to sell at a
much reduced price, what will that get them in England?

I hate to sound snobbish or ‘told you so’
but a great many of these ex-pats coming out here seeking the good life have never
made any attempt to integrate or contribute to Greek society. Some of them,
letting their homes for holidays, have the money paid in sterling into a British
bank which doesn’t do anything for the Greek economy even though the holiday
makers themselves obviously spend money whilst here. But they see bad times
ahead and have decided to make a run for it, the days of sand, sea, cheap
booze and cheap cigarettes are over. For some reason we nicknamed them the
Dagenham Brigade because despite their age their whole mentality is chav.

About Me

Ex actor, ex director, still a writer, prose now no longer plays. Like the Godfather growing tomatoes. No, too old to garden but still writing - my autobiography No Official Umbrella - same title as my Blogs and soon to come out in paperback, novels and of course my favorite detective Thornton King